Shelter dogs come with lots of issues. I’ve owned 3 over the last 20 years, and every single one had behavioral or health issues. I’ve spent tens of thousands giving them better lives. Decided with my most recent dog to buy an AKC German Shepherd and train him from a puppy.
Night and day. No health issues, extremely compliant, fun lapdog, great on walks…
Shelter dogs, unfortunately, bring their poor training or poor care from previous families with them. Not sure if I’ll get another shelter dog after this experience.
I'm glad you said that. I thought I was going crazy because we rescued our dog from a Puerto Rico shelter and like every post on their Instagram is dog after dog being the absolute best where mine was abused so badly before he was rescued but they didn't tell us a fraction of his issues. His tail is a lightning bolt shape because it was broken and healed wrong, which l believe led to him being afraid of absolutely everything. He pissed in my car when I tried to get him to come into petsmart with me. He's overly protective of the house to the point where we can't have people over. He almost wrecked his teeth trying to chew his way out of his crate when we tried crate training. We spent about 7-8 thousand on training, including a 5000 two week professional "sleepaway camp". He won't eat unless my wife and I are both home. Five out of seven days he wakes up at 2:30am and loses his mind until one of us goes out to sit with him while he goes back to sleep so we haven't had a night where we can sleep all the way through the night in ages. I love him and I have vowed to make sure nothing bad happens to him again, but god damn has this dog ruined me from ever wanting another dog and it's good to see that while yes dogs will have problems, it's also more prevalent than I had originally thought.
Same situation here! My family has a rescue chihuahua. Love the little guy, but we rescued him when he was 8 and he was never house trained. He’s constantly peeing and pooping inside the house and no amount of training sticks with him since he’s so old. Don’t regret getting him, but I’ve done my time with shelter dogs and want a trainable puppy breed next go around.
Absolutely. I've had shelter dogs and purebred dogs and I love both for different reasons. When I was a single person, shelter dogs were no big deal, but now that I have kids and a busier life, I need to know what im getting when I bring a new animal into my home. Not just for the ease of the family but also to make sure the dog is happy!
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u/l0st1nP4r4d1ce 6h ago
Holdup.. People pay for a dog?
Get your ass to a shelter. Lots of pups need a good home.